Reduced power tuner chip with integrated voltage regulator for a satellite receiver system

ABSTRACT

An improved DBS receiver front end architecture having a tuner chip and a demodulator/decoder chip. The tuner chip has reduced-power features which allow the incorporation of an on-chip voltage regulator. The tuner chip is a direct conversion tuner with on-chip tuning frequency generation and reduced power interface signals. The on-chip voltage regulator provides a constant power supply for nonlinear components of the tuner and frequency generation circuitry to minimize phase noise. Broadly speaking, the present invention concerns a DBS receiver front end which includes a tuner chip and a demodulator/decoder chip. The tuner chip includes an on-chip voltage regulator, in addition to a tuning oscillator, a charge pump, a downconverter, and a lowpass filter. The on-chip voltage regulator is operable to provide a stable power supply to the tuning oscillator and the charge pump. The tuning oscillator is coupled to a tank circuit having an adjustable resonance frequency, and the charge pump is coupled to the tank circuit to control the resonance frequency. The downconverter receives a tuning frequency provided by the tuning oscillator, receives a receive signal, and combines the tuning frequency signal with the receive signal to produce a product signal. The lowpass filter acts to convert the product signal into a baseband signal, which may then be provided as a differential output signal.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

This invention relates to an apparatus for receiving and decoding adigital signal. More specifically, it concerns a front end for a set topsatellite receiver system.

2. Description of the Related Art

Digital broadcast satellite (DBS) communication systems provide reliablelong range transmission of information without the need for apre-existing network of transmission lines and routing switches.However, since the costs entailed in creating a satellite and placing itin orbit are literally astronomical, the economic practicality of thesesystems depends in large part on widespread use of DBS receiver systems.Consequently containment of the costs while maximizing the performanceof DBS receiver systems plays an important role for the emerging DBStechnology.

FIG. 1 shows a diagram of portions of a DBS system 100 in operation. Aservice provider 102 broadcasts a signal by way of a satellite 104 to auser dish 106. In this manner, user dish 106 receives an encoded digitaldata stream modulated onto a carrier in the Ku-Band (12 GHz). User dish106 has a down-converter (also referred to as a low-noise block, or LNB)which provides a receive signal 108 to DBS receiver 110. Receive signal108 is obtained by shifting the frequency of the modulated signalcarrier from Ku-Band to the L-Band (1-2 GHz). DBS receiver 110 comprisesa front end that demodulates and decodes the digital data stream, and aback end that processes the digital data stream to implement theprovided services, e.g. digital cable programming. DBS receiver 110 iscolloquially referred to as a set-top box since it is commonlypositioned on top of a television set 112 as shown.

In DBS system 100, the digital signal modulation is typically of thebinary or quadrature phase shift keying type. The signal passes throughthe atmosphere and is subjected to various forms of interference. Hencea first issue which must be addressed by the DBS receiver front end isthat the received signal is a corrupted version of the transmittedsignal. Due to the power restrictions' placed on satellite transmissionchannels, the probability of digital data errors due to signalcorruption is substantial. To maximize a signal power to noise powerratio (SNR) of the signal, equalization is used. However, to makesatellite communications reliable at high data rates, error correctioncodes are needed. The error correction coding scheme advocated by thestandard "Specifications of the Baseline Modulation/Channel CodingSystem for Digital Multi-Programme Television by Satellite", EuropeanBroadcasting Union, January 1994, is a concatenated coding scheme.

A second issue which must be addressed by the DBS receiver front end isfrequency drift. For example, one source of frequency drift is that thecarrier frequency of the output signal provided by an economical LNB candrift by ±5 MHz with temperature.

FIG. 2 shows one implementation of a DBS receiver front end 200. Frontend 200 comprises a tuner 202 and a demodulator/decoder 204. Tuner 202converts received signal 108 to quadrature baseband signals.Demodulator/decoder 204 converts the quadrature baseband signals todigital form, then performs digital equalization and decoding to produceoutput data stream 238. As discussed further below, demodulator/decoder204 also provides feedback signals to tuner 202 for timing and gaincontrol.

Tuner 202 comprises a frequency synthesizer 216 (typically comprising avoltage controlled oscillator), an analog multiplier 206, anintermediate frequency bandpass filter 208, a gain control amplifier210, an I/Q down converter 212, and a lowpass filter 214. Frequencysynthesizer 216 is set by an external microprocessor 236 to be "tuned"to the received signal. The tuned frequency synthesizer provides asignal with a frequency which is offset by a fixed amount (typically 480MHz) from the frequency of the desired received signal. The fixed amountwill be the frequency of a product signal which results when multiplier206 multiplies the signal from the frequency synthesizer and thereceived signal.

Multiplier 206 multiplies received signal 108 and the output signal fromfrequency synthesizer 216 to effectively shift the frequency of receivedsignal 108 to an intermediate frequency (typically 480 MHz) in anintermediate frequency signal. The product signal at the output ofmultiplier 206 can be expressed as the sum of a desired intermediatefrequency signal and other undesired byproduct signals. The productsignal is coupled to intermediate frequency bandpass filter 208 whichremoves the undesired frequency components (and in so doing, removes theundesired byproduct signals) leaving only the intermediate frequencysignal.

Output from bandpass filter 208 is coupled to gain control amplifier 210which regulates the amplitude of the intermediate frequency signal. Gaincontrol amplifier 210 has an adaptive gain which is set to provide aconstant-maximum amplitude output signal. The regulation mechanism is aloop filter 234 which operates on a negative feedback signal provided bydemodulator/decoder 204. The effect of loop filter 234 is to increasethe gain of gain control amplifier 210 when the maximum amplitude of theoutput signal declines below a target level, and to decrease the gainwhen the maximum amplitude exceeds a target level.

Output of the gain control amplifier 210 is coupled to I/Q downconverter 212 which converts the intermediate frequency signal toquadrature baseband signals. The conversion may take place in a similarfashion to the previous frequency conversion using output from afixed-frequency oscillator 218, but at baseband two signals are needed.The two baseband signals represent the in-phase (I) and quadrature-phase(Q) components of the intermediate frequency signal. A lowpass filter214 is employed in the similar fashion to the way baseband filter wasused to remove undesired frequency components. In this fashion, tuner202 converts received signal 108 to quadrature baseband signals.

A third issue which is desirably addressed by the receiver front end isthe number of parts required to construct a tuner. Typically, the tuneris constructed using a synthesizer element, an oscillator element, loopfilter parts (often discrete components), low pass filter elements, anintegrated circuit for the mixer, intermediate frequency bandpassfilter, and I/Q downconverter, a metal enclosure (not shown) for RF(radio frequency) shielding, and voltage regulators (not shown) toprovide very clean power. A reduction in the part count wouldadvantageously reduce cost and improve reliability.

A fourth issue which must be addressed by the receiver front end is thesensitivity of the tuner to RF noise. Noise control is typicallyprovided by the voltage regulators and metal enclosure. Other noisecontrol features which provide further reduction in RF noise wouldadvantageously improve tuner performance.

Returning to FIG. 2, tuner 202 is followed by demodulator/decoder 204.Demodulator/decoder 204 comprises an analog-to-digital converter (ADC)220, a decimation block 222, a matched filter 224, a decode logic 226,and a timing, carrier and gain error block 230. ADC 220 converts thequadrature baseband signals into digital form at a sampling rate andsampling phase determined by a signal from a voltage controlledoscillator (VCO) 228. The digital baseband signals are decimated bydecimation block 222 (i.e. the sample rate is reduced by dropping afixed number of samples from each timing interval) to a rate of twosamples per symbol interval. Decimation block 224 allows forover-sampling by ADC 220. Over-sampling is the practice of sampling ananalog signal at a higher rate than the symbol rate. Use of thispractice allows the transfer of some filtering operations from theanalog domain to the digital domain. In general, only simple analogfilters are practical. For complex filtering operations, digital filtersare significantly easier to implement and adjust. By over-sampling andperforming the matched filter operation in the digital domain, asubstantial implementation complexity reduction is achieved.Furthermore, the use of over-sampling allows relaxed tolerances on theanalog filters used in the analog-to-digital conversion process, withoutsignificant impairment to the signal-to-noise ratio.

The output of decimation block 222 passes through matched filter 224,which substantially maximizes the signal-to-noise ratio of the digitalbaseband signals. To accomplish this, the impulse response of matchedfilter 224 is designed to be the time-reverse of the shape of a signalcorresponding to one symbol. Hence, the impulse response is "matched" tothe symbol signal. One common symbol signal shape is a square rootraised cosine.

The signal provided at the output of matched filter 224 is processed bydecode logic 226 to provide error correction and substantially recoverthe transmitted data stream. This received data stream is then providedas output signal 238. In this manner, demodulator/decoder 204 convertsthe quadrature baseband signals to digital form, then performs digitalequalization and decoding to produce output data stream 238.

The signal provided at the output of matched filter 224 is processed bytiming, carrier and gain error block 230 to determine an estimate oferror conditions present in the signal. One estimate is for the gainerror, and this estimate is passed to loop filter 234, which wasdescribed above. A second estimate is for the sampling phase error, andthis estimate is passed to loop filter 232. Loop filter 232 operates toregulate the sampling phase and frequency of ADC 220. A third estimateis formed for the carrier frequency offset error. This estimate isperiodically sampled by external microprocessor 236 and used to adjustthe setting of frequency synthesizer 216. In this manner,demodulator/decoder 204 provides feedback signals to tuner 202 fortiming and gain control.

FIG. 3 shows a second implementation of a DBS receiver front end 300.Components which have direct counterparts in front end 200 are numberedidentically. Fixed-frequency oscillator 218 has been replaced with anintermediate frequency (IF) VCO 318. IF VCO 318 provides a signal to I/Qdown converter 212 which a variable frequency which is regulated by loopfilter 319 operating on a feedback signal provided by timing and gainerror block 330. This approach allows for continuous monitoring andcompensation of a limited amount of frequency drift. Large drifts muststill be compensated by intervention of microprocessor 236. This is truebecause of the effect bandpass filter 208 has on signals which drift outof the range of the pass band.

The two discussed implementations of a DBS receiver front end arepreviously implemented methods for converting a DBS signal into areceived data stream. Improved implementations are desirable. Inparticular, an implementation which does not require externalmicroprocessor intervention for tracking frequency drift would bothreduce cost and improve performance. Also, an implementation of thetuner which converts directly from the received signal to the basebandrepresentation would be more cost effective. To make it feasible to do adirect conversion for DBS, however, a new method for correcting I/Qangular error is needed, and a new method for tracking frequency driftis needed. Tighter control must be provided for the lowpass filter sinceIF filtering is not an option in direct conversion system. Further, anytechnique which improves the system performance with little or no addedcost is desirable.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The problems outlined above are in large part solved by an improved DBSreceiver front end architecture having a tuner chip and ademodulator/decoder chip. The tuner chip has reduced-power featureswhich allow the incorporation of an on-chip voltage regulator. The tunerchip is a direct conversion tuner with on-chip tuning frequencygeneration and reduced power interface signals. The on-chip voltageregulator provides a constant power supply for nonlinear components ofthe tuner and frequency generation circuitry to minimize phase noise.

Broadly speaking, the present invention contemplates a DBS receiverfront end which includes a tuner chip and a demodulator/decoder chip.The tuner chip includes an on-chip voltage regulator, in addition to atuning oscillator, a charge pump, a downconverter, and a lowpass filter.The on-chip voltage regulator is operable to provide a stable powersupply to the tuning oscillator and the charge pump. The tuningoscillator is coupled to a tank circuit having an adjustable resonancefrequency, and the charge pump is coupled to the tank circuit to controlthe resonance frequency. The downconverter receives a tuning frequencyprovided by the tuning oscillator, receives a receive signal, andcombines the tuning frequency signal with the receive signal to producea product signal. The lowpass filter acts to convert the product signalinto a baseband signal, which may then be provided as a differentialoutput signal.

Features which the front end architecture may have include: (1) thefront end being implemented as a tuner chip and a demodulator/decoderchip with a very small number of supporting discrete components, therebyreducing implementation cost and complexity, (2) the tuner chip usingdirect conversion, thereby reducing power consumption, (3) the tuningfrequency synthesizer being split into a counter sub-circuit on thedemodulator/decoder chip and a phase detection and oscillatorsub-circuit on the tuner chip, thereby reducing the part count whileminimizing interference with the tuner, (4) the phase detector having anexternally configurable charge pump gain, thereby achieving a constantphase-lock loop behavior, (5) the oscillator sub-circuit employing afrequency doubler, thereby providing an extended frequency synthesisrange while keeping complexity low, (6) the tuner having aprecision-configurable lowpass filter, thereby providing accurateadjacent channel removal, (7) the interface signals between the tunerand demodulator/decoder being provided at reduced amplitude and/or slewrate to minimize digital noise interference with the tuner, (8) thedemodulator/decoder providing equalization for I/Q amplitude and phaseerror, thereby providing an improved direct-conversion systemperformance, (9) the demodulator/decoder directly correcting forfrequency offset error, thereby obviating the need for a bus from anexternal microprocessor to the tuner, and (10) the tuner chip pin outbeing designed to provide a maximal spacing between the pins for thereceived signal and pins for other high frequency signals.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Other objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent uponreading the following detailed description and upon reference to theaccompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a high level view of a DBS system having a DBS receiver.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a DBS receiver front end embodiment whichcompensates for frequency offset error using an external microprocessor;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a DBS receiver front end embodiment whichcan compensate for frequency offset error by adjusting the inputfrequency of the I/Q downconverter;

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a DBS receiver front end embodimentaccording to the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of a second DBS receiver front end embodimentaccording to the present invention;

FIG. 6 is a pin diagram of a tuner chip; and

FIG. 7 is a block diagram of a loop filter which may be used to converttiming errors to an estimate of a frequency or phase error.

While the invention is susceptible to various modifications andalternative forms, specific embodiments thereof are shown by way ofexample in the drawings and will herein be described in detail. Itshould be understood, however, that the drawings and detaileddescription thereto are not intended to limit the invention to theparticular form disclosed, but on the contrary, the intention is tocover all modifications, equivalents and alternatives falling within thespirit and scope of the present invention as defined by the appendedclaims.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

In, FIG. 4 a block diagram of a DBS receiver front end 400 is shown. TheDBS receiver front end 400 comprises a tuner chip 402 coupled to receivetwo receive signals 108A, 108B. The tuner operates on the receivesignals to convert one of them to a baseband signal, which is thenprocessed by demodulator/decoder chip 404 to remove the channelmodulation and error correction coding from the signal. Generallyspeaking, the tuner chip has a number of reduced power features whichadvantageously allow the incorporation of an on-chip voltage regulator.As is discussed further below, the on-chip voltage regulator providespower to a downconverter and a tuning oscillator to minimize phase noisein the tuner.

Relative to previously discussed systems, numerous configurationdifferences and new features exist in DBS receiver front end 400. Theseinclude (1) the front end is implemented as two integrated circuits(ICs) with a very small number of supporting discrete components, (2)the tuner is implemented using direct conversion, (3) the tuningfrequency synthesizer is split into a counter sub-circuit and a phasedetection and oscillator sub-circuit, (4) the phase detector has anexternally configurable charge pump gain, (5) the oscillator sub-circuitemploys a frequency doubler, (6) the tuner has a precision-configurablelowpass filter, (7) the interface signals between the tuner anddemodulator/decoder are provided at reduced amplitude and/or slew rate,(8) the demodulator/decoder provides equalization for I/Q amplitude andphase error, (9) the demodulator/decoder directly corrects for frequencyoffset error. One further feature of the front end (shown in FIG. 6) isthat of a maximal spacing between the pins for the received signal andpins for other high frequency signals. Each of these features isindividually discussed and presented in greater detail below.

A first aspect of front end 400 is the small part count. Front end 400comprises a tuner chip 402, a demodulator/decoder chip 404, a timingcrystal(s) 406, a loop filter 410, a tank circuit 412, and a powercapacitor 414. Power capacitor 414 is coupled to a voltage regulator 416on tuner chip 402. Tuner chip 402, like most tuners, requires a veryclean voltage supply for the mixer and the frequency synthesis circuitryto achieve the best phase noise performance. In the past, this has beenachieved using discrete regulator components. A cost savings and areduction of voltage supply contamination are advantageously achieved byplacing the regulator on-chip. The heat is generated in regulating theamount of power required by the tuner and frequency synthesis circuitry.Heat dissipation for chips with circuits that generate heat oftenrequires using packaging techniques that are costly and more complexthan preferred techniques. However by reconfiguring the circuitry andreducing the interface signal drive power as discussed further below,the power requirements can be reduced to the point that the heatdissipation problem can be addressed with preferred packagingtechniques.

A second aspect of front end 400 is the implementation of adirect-conversion tuner architecture. Tuner chip 402 includes amplifier418, I/Q downconverter 420, lowpass filter 422, and gain controlamplifier 424. Amplifier 418 buffers and amplifies either receive signal108a or receive signal 108b. Amplifier 418 uses input select signal 419to determine which of the receive signals 108a, 108b to forward to I/Qdownconverter 420. I/Q downconverter then directly converts theforwarded signal to in-phase (I) and quadrature-phase (Q) basebandsignal components. The tuning signal 425 provided by frequencysynthesizer 426 is set to be "tuned" to the receive signal. The tuningsignal 425 is filtered by a phase-shift network (PSN) 428 to produce twoversions of the tuning signal which have a 90 degree phase difference.Mixers 430, 432 combine the forwarded signal with the two versions ofthe tuning signal to effectively shift the modulation frequency of theforwarded signal to substantially zero in a baseband signal. Thebaseband signal is composed of the in-phase and quadrature phasebaseband signal components provided by mixers 430, 432 respectively. Thebaseband signal components can be expressed as a sum of the desiredsignals and undesired signals. The lowpass filter 422 removes theundesired signals, leaving only the desired baseband signal components.The gain control amplifier 424 has an adaptive gain which is used toadjust the magnitude of the desired signal components to provideconstant-maximum amplitude output signals (i.e. the maximum amplitude ofthe output signals is maintained at a substantially constant level). Theoutput signals are forwarded in differential output form todemodulator/decoder chip 404. The direct conversion architecture and thereduced amplitude of interface signals (which is discussed furtherbelow) both contribute to the reduced power requirements of tuner chip402.

A third aspect of front end 400 concerns frequency synthesizer 426. Asshown in FIG. 4, the frequency synthesizer 426 is split into twosub-circuits which are incorporated into the tuner chip 402 anddemodulator/decoder chip 404, thereby further reducing the part count.The counter sub-circuit comprises two counters, swallow counter 434 andprogram counter 436. After being reset, both counters count clock pulsesfrom prescaler 438. After A clock pulses, swallow counter 434 togglesthe mode of prescaler 438. The output of program counter 436 is a clockthat completes one cycle for every N input pulses, so after about N/2pulses, program counter 436 toggles its output, and after N pulses,program counter 436 toggles its output, resets itself, and resetsswallow counter 434. Placing these programmable counters ondemodulator/decoder advantageously isolates the majority of the digitalcircuitry of frequency synthesizer 426 from tuner chip 402, which issensitive to high frequency interference such as that caused byfast-switching digital circuits.

The phase detection and oscillator sub-circuit of frequency synthesizer426 comprises prescaler 438, jitter reduction element 440, referencedivider 442, timing crystal 406, crystal oscillator 408, mixer 446,charge pump 448, loop filter 410, tank circuit 412, tuning oscillator450, and frequency doubler 452. Tuning signal 425 is set at a tuningfrequency in the following way. Prescaler 438 reduces the frequency oftuning signal 425 by a factor of (M+1) while swallow counter 434 iscounting, and reduces the frequency of tuning signal 425 by a factor ofM after swallow counter 434 has halted, where M is a predeterminedvalue. The reduced frequency signal is then provided to swallow counter434, program counter 436, and jitter reduction element 440. Swallowcounter 434 is programmable to A which determines how many extra pulsesshould be "swallowed", i.e. how many times the factor of (M+1) should beused instead of the factor M. As explained further below, this providesa high frequency resolution in the tuning signal. Program counter 436 isprogrammable to N which determines how many cycles of the reducedfrequency signal correspond to one cycle of its output, feedbackfrequency signal 437. Since the N reduced frequency signal cycles areformed from A·(M+1) tuning signal cycles and (N-A)·M tuning signalcycles, each cycle of feedback frequency signal 437 corresponds to N·M+Atuning signal cycles. This is the multiplier which is used to set thetuning frequency.

The feedback frequency signal passes through jitter reduction element440, where the transitions are synchronized with transitions in thereduced frequency signal provided by prescaler 438. The resultingre-timed signal is mixed with a reference frequency signal provided byreference divider 442. Reference divider 442 produces this signal bydividing the frequency of the output of crystal oscillator 408 by apredetermined number. The result of the mixing operation, when passedthrough an active lowpass filter which is part of charge pump 448, isindicative of the phase difference between the reference frequencysignal and the re-timed signal. Charge pump 448 applies a correctionvoltage to loop filter 410 which determines the control voltage appliedto the node between the varactors in tank circuit 412. The controlvoltage varies the effective capacitance of the varactors, and hence theresonance frequency of tank circuit 412. The resonance frequency of tankcircuit 412 determines the frequency of the output of tuning oscillator450. Frequency doubler 452 provides a tuning frequency signal with thefrequency of the output of the tuning oscillator when in disabled mode,but when in enabled mode, frequency doubler 452 provides a tuningfrequency signal with double the frequency of the output of the tuningfrequency oscillator 450.

The correction voltage of charge pump 448 acts to adjust the frequencyof the output of tuning oscillator 450 to reduce the phase differencebetween the re-timed signal and the reference frequency signal. When thefrequency synthesizer 426 is in steady state (i.e. the loop is"locked"), the frequency and phase differences between the re-timedsignal and the reference frequency signal are substantially zero, andthe tuning frequency signal 425 has a frequency of

    F.sub.R =(N·M+A)·F.sub.R,

where F_(R) is the reference frequency. The desired tuning frequency isthereby determined by the setting of the counters 434, 436 on thedemodulator/decoder chip. This eliminates the need for a bus connectionbetween the system microprocessor and the noise sensitive tuner chip,since the system microprocessor specifies the desired reception band bycommunicating with the demodulator/decoder chip.

To aid in the acquisition of phase lock, charge pump 448 may beconfigured to cause a frequency sweep by providing a constant, nonzerocorrection voltage until a phase lock is detected. For further detailson the operation of a frequency synthesizer, please refer to the Fujitsuapplication note "Fujitsu Prescalers and Phase-Locked Loops for VHF andUHF Frequency Synthesis: A Tutorial with Selection Guides," published inMarch 1991 by the Field Applications Engineering Department of FujitsuMicroelectronics, Inc., which is hereby incorporated by reference.

A fourth aspect of front end 400 concerns the charge pump. Charge pump448 has an externally configurable gain, which can be set using digitalinputs 454. These inputs are used to set the gain to one of four values.The values are chosen to provide constant phase lock loop behavioracross the entire frequency synthesis range.

A fifth aspect of front end 400 concerns the use of a frequency doubler.In a direct conversion DBS front end, the tuning frequency must coverthe range 925 to 2150 MHz. Designing a tuning oscillator to provide thisfrequency range is very difficult. To maintain the nonlinearity of thevoltage-to-frequency relationship of the tuning oscillator within thestability limits of the frequency synthesizer loop, it is desirable tolimit the range of the tuning oscillator to a single frequency octave.This range may then be extended through use of a doubler. Tuningoscillator 450 may be designed to operate in the octave between 537.5and 1075 MHz. The enabling of frequency doubler 452 then alters thisrange to the octave between 1075 and 2150 MHZ. The enable signal 456 forthe frequency doubler thereby allows selection between these octaves,and extends the tuning frequency range from 537.5 to 2150 MHz. Thedoubler provides (a) an extended tuning range (as already explained),and (b) better isolation between tank circuit 412 and receive signals108a, 108b, since the tank circuit operates at half the tuning frequencyin the high frequency octave.

A sixth aspect of front end 400 is the configuration method of lowpassfilter 422. In a direct conversion tuner, no IF (intermediate frequency)filter is present. All the filtering to remove adjacent channels andnoise is performed on the baseband signals by lowpass filter 422.Consequently, the performance of these filters is crucial, and tightcontrol of the cut-off frequency is desirable. Demodulator/decoder chip404 includes a programmable divider 458, which divides the output ofcrystal oscillator 408-B to provide a clock signal with a frequencyindicative of the desired cutoff frequency of lowpass filter 422. Tunerchip 402 includes a frequency-to-voltage converter, which in theembodiment shown takes the form of a gyrator bandpass filter 460followed by a mixer 462 and a lowpass filter (not shown). Bandpassfilter 460 shifts the phase of the clock signal, and the amount of phaseshift is determined by the frequency of the clock signal. The phaseshifted signal and the original clock signal are combined by mixer 462,and the resulting signal, when lowpass filtered, has a voltage which isdetermined by the phase shift, and hence the frequency of the clocksignal. The voltage signal is used to adjust the cutoff frequency oflowpass filter 422. The use of a frequency signal advantageouslyprovides a greater noise immunity and a more accurate setting of thecutoff frequency of the lowpass filter.

A seventh aspect of front end 400 concerns the interface signals betweentuner chip 402 and demodulator/decoder chip 404. To reduce the digitalnoise interference on the tuner chip, the outputs of swallow counter434, program counter 436, prescaler 438, and programmable divider 458are provided at reduced voltage levels and limited slew rates. Thesharp, fast transitions in digital signals cause a wide band ofinterference noise. Reducing the amplitude and rate of these transitionsgreatly reduces the intensity and frequency range of the interferencenoise. For example, a 100 mV peak-to-peak voltage level limitationsignificantly reduces the intensity of the interference noise relativeto a typical 3 V peak-to-peak digital signal. The slew rate is reducedby reducing the transition amplitude (by reducing the peak-to-peakvoltage) and/or by increasing the transition time. The transition timemay be increased to a significant fraction of the minimum cycle time ofthe digital signal to achieve a significant reduction in theinterference noise bandwidth. The output of gain control amplifier 424is provided to demodulator/decoder 404 in differential form to reducethe signal amplitude while maintaining a high SNR.

An eighth aspect of front end 400 concerns the correction of I/Q angularand amplitude error which may be introduced by a low cost directconversion architecture. Demodulator/decoder chip 404 comprises ananalog-to-digital converter (ADC) 464, an optional angular errorequalizer 466, a complex multiplier 468, a decimation block 470, aninterpolation block 472, a matched filter 474, an output control circuit476, decode logic 226, a timing and carrier error block 478, and a gainerror block 480. ADC 464 converts the baseband signal components intodigital form at a sampling rate and sampling phase determined by asignal from crystal oscillator 408B. As will be discussed further below,external oscillator is set to oversample (i.e. sample at a rate morethan twice the highest frequency component) the baseband signalcomponents.

The digital baseband signal components may pass through an optionalequalizer 466. Optional equalizer 466 is designed to correct I/Q angularerror and I/Q amplitude imbalance. Ideally, the I and Q componentsrepresent portions of the receive signal that are 90 degrees out ofphase. When the tuner and subsequent circuitry is less than ideal, the Iand Q components may no longer be 90 degrees out of phase, and hencehave an angular error sufficient to degrade performance. Additionally,the two separate signal paths for the I/Q components may result in anamplitude imbalance which can degrade performance. This angular errorand amplitude imbalance is correctable by use of an adaptivefinite-impulse response (FIR) filter which adjusts the amplitude andphase of one component relative to the other. Hence the addition of anangular error equalizer avoids the problem of degraded performance whichmight otherwise occur due to use of a direct downconversion tuner.

A ninth aspect of front end 400 concerns the correction of frequencyoffset error by demodulator/decoder chip 404. The digital basebandsignals are multiplied by an output signal from a numerically controlledoscillator (NCO) 482 by complex multiplier 468. NCO 482 is set toprovide a signal which cancels the frequency offset error. An importantadvantage is gained by canceling the offset error while the signal isoversampled. The range over which the frequency offset error can betracked and compensated is K·F_(x) /2, where K is the number of samplesper symbol and F_(x) is the symbol rate. By allowing K to range as highas 16 or more, the tracking range is greatly extended relative toNyquist sampling (K=1). Since a tuner which performs directdownconversion to baseband (e.g. tuner chip 402) is susceptible tosignificant frequency offset errors in the baseband signal, having anextended tracking range in the demodulator/decoder makes using the morecost-effective, direct downconversion tuners feasible. The directcorrection of the frequency offset error by the demodulator/decoder alsoenhances system performance by eliminating the delay introduced byexternal microprocessor control of the frequency synthesizer.

The offset-error canceled signal at the output of complex multiplier 468passes through decimation block 470 which lowpass filters the digitalbaseband signal in preparation for downsampling. Interpolator 472 thenreduces the sampling rate to two samples per symbol, with the samplingtimes adjusted according to feedback from loop filter 484. Thedownsampled signal is coupled to matched filter 474, which is designedto substantially maximize the signal-to-noise ratio of the digitalbaseband signal. To accomplish this, the impulse response of matchedfilter 474 is designed to be the time-reverse of the shape of a signalcorresponding to one symbol. Hence, the impulse response is "matched" tothe symbol signal. One common symbol signal shape is a square rootraised cosine.

Prior to the decoding stage, the sampling rate of the signal is madeequal to the symbol rate. This is accomplished by output control block476 which passes on only one sample per symbol. The resulting samplesequence is processed by decode logic 226 to provide error correctionand substantially recover the transmitted data stream. This receiveddata stream is then provided as decoded output signal 238.

The signal provided at the output of matched filter 474 is processed bygain error block 480 to determine an estimate of the amplitude error inthe equalized signal. The amplitude error estimates are processed byloop filter 490, which then adjusts the gain of gain control amplifier424. The output of matched filter 474 is also processed by timing andcarrier error block 478 to determine an estimate of timing errorconditions present in the equalized signal. One estimate is for thesampling phase error, and this estimate is passed to loop filter 484.Loop filter 484 operates to regulate the sampling phase of interpolator472. Another estimate is for the frequency offset error of the tuningsignal, and this is passed to loop filter 486 and onboardmicrocontroller 488. Two frequency offset correction modes may be used.At high symbol rates (i.e. when the desired reception bandwidth isroughly the same size as the lowpass filter bandwidth), the frequencyoffset is corrected by the microcontroller 488 which "bumps" the settingof frequency synthesizer 426. The setting is adjusted by changing theswallow counter value A and possibly changing the program counter valueN as well. At these symbol rates, the timing loops remain locked, andperformance is not compromised. At low symbol rates (i.e. when thedesired reception bandwidth is significantly smaller than the lowpassfilter bandwidth) or small frequency offset error values, the receivesignal is allowed to drift within the lowpass filter, and the frequencyoffset error estimates are processed by loop filter 486 to adjust thesetting of NCO 482, which then compensates the offset error.

Turning now to FIG. 5, an alternative architecture for sub-dividing thefrequency synthesizer 426 is shown. The phase detection portion, whichcomprises jitter reduction element 440, reference divider 442, and mixer446, is placed on demodulator/decoder chip 504 with counters 434, 436.The oscillation portion, which comprises charge pump 448, loop filter410, tank circuit 412, tuning oscillator 450, and frequency doubler 452remains on the tuner chip 502 with prescaler 438. Excepting prescaler438, all the digital circuitry is thereby removed from tuner chip 502,yielding a significant reduction in digital noise interference withtuner chip 502. It is expected that there is a tradeoff in frequencysynthesizer performance due to interference with the output of mixer446. However, this may be addressed by using a digital phase detector inplace of mixer 446. To avoid re-introducing digital noise interference,the output of the digital phase detector would require a limited voltagerange and slew rate.

Turning now to FIG. 6, an exemplary pin out of a tuner chip 402 isshown. For the purposes of discussion, it is assumed that tuner chip 402is manufactured in a square, 64-pin, surface mount package, with pinsnumbered 601 through 664 as shown. However, it is noted that anypackaging type may indeed be used. The pin out of tuner chip 402 isdistinguished by the feature that the input pins for the received signalare maximally spaced from pins for other high frequency input or outputsignals. This provides for a strongly reduced high frequency coupling tothe received signal input line, which advantageously eliminates the needfor special purpose couplers to prevent RF leakage into the input lines.The maximal spacing is achieved primarily by designating a corner pin(e.g. pin 664) as the received signal input pin, and designating pins onthe opposite side of the chip as the tank circuit pins (e.g. pins 631,632). These pins would preferentially be near the diagonally oppositecorner from the received signal input pin, as in the given example.However, when a second receive signal input pin is present, the tworeceive signal input pins are positioned to form two vertices of anapproximately equilateral triangle, with the third vertex being theadjacent tank circuit pins (e.g. receive signal pins 664, 617, and tankcircuit pins 640, 641). This provides for maximal spacing to minimizethe RF coupling. This strategy may be applied to packages withrectangular pinouts, where the resulting triangle is as close toequilateral as practical.

For one reason or another, the corner pins may be already assigned andit would be impractical to assign the high frequency signal pins to beadjacent to the package corners. The following method is provided as away to determine a "good" distributed high frequency pin assignment.Assuming that the package has N pins, that the pins are numbered in asequential fashion along the perimeter of the package, and that pins forM high frequency signal sources need to be distributed, then the pinnumbers may be determined according to the formula:

    P.sub.i =round(i·N/M)+c mod N,i=1, . . . , M,

where C is an offset number which may be chosen to shift thedistribution of pins around the perimeter of the chip to better minimizeany high frequency signal interference or to better fit the pinsassignments with previously assigned pins. Signal sources having morethan one associated pin typically have the associated pins adjacent toone another. (It is noted that the first and last pins are considered tobe adjacent, e.g. pins 601, 664.) For these signal sources, only one pinnumber would be determined from the formula, and adjacent pin numbersare chosen for the rest of the associated pins. For two signal sourceson the 64 pin package of FIG. 6, the pins are diametrically opposed. Forthree signal sources, pins 621, 643, 664 or some shifted version of this(e.g. 660, 617, and tank circuit pins 639, 640) provide a "good"distribution of the high frequency signal source inputs. Acceptablevariations on the above formula include replacing the round(iN/M) termwith an upper or lower bound term, e.g. i·.left brkt-top.N/M.rightbrkt-top. or i·.left brkt-bot.N/M.right brkt-bot..

The regulation mechanism for gain control amplifier 424 is a loop filter490 which operates on a negative feedback signal provided by gain errorblock 480. The effect of loop filter 490 is to increase the gain of gaincontrol amplifier 424 when the maximum amplitude of the output signaldeclines below a target level, and to decrease the gain when the maximumamplitude exceeds a target level. Turning now to FIG. 7, a block diagramof an exemplary loop filter 700 is shown. Loop filter 700 converts anerror signal 702 into a feedback signal 704. Error signal 702 ismultiplied (706) by a scale factor μ and integrated (708). Error signal702 is also multiplied by a second scale factor λ (710) and added (712)to the result from integrator 708 to form feedback signal 704. Detailson the theory of feedback control may be found in many standardtextbooks.

In summary, DBS receiver embodiments have been described which (1)implement the front end as two integrated circuits with a very smallnumber of supporting discrete components, (2) convert directly from thereceived signal to the baseband representation, (3) implement the tuningfrequency synthesizer with digital counters on a CMOS IC and anoscillation sub-circuit on a bipolar IC, (4) provide an externallyconfigurable charge pump on the (bipolar) tuner IC, (5) employ afrequency doubler in the oscillation sub-circuit, (6) provide aprecision-configurable lowpass filter on the tuner IC, (7) use reducedamplitude and slew rate interface signals between the tuner anddemodulator/decoder, (8) correct I/Q amplitude and phase error using adigital equalizer, (9) digitally track and compensate for frequencyoffset error in the demodulator/decoder, and (10) maximally space thepins for the receive signal and the local oscillator tank circuit. Eachof these characteristics individually and in combination act to improvethe DBS receiver front end performance and/or decrease implementationcost.

Numerous variations and modifications will become apparent to thoseskilled in the art once the above disclosure is fully appreciated. It isintended that the following claims be interpreted to embrace all suchvariations and modifications.

What is claimed is:
 1. A DBS receiver front end comprising:a tuner chipwhich includes:a tuning oscillator coupled to a tank circuit having anadjustable resonance frequency; a charge pump coupled to control theresonance frequency of the tank circuit; an on-chip voltage regulatoroperable to provide a stable power supply to the tuning oscillator andthe charge pump; a downconverter coupled to receive a tuning frequencysignal from the tuning oscillator, wherein the downconverter isconfigured to receive a receive signal and to combine the receive signalwith the tuning frequency signal to produce a product signal; and alowpass filter coupled to convert the product signal into a basebandsignal; a demodulator/decoder chip operably coupled to receive thebaseband signal from the tuner chip and configured to convert thebaseband signal to a decoded signal.
 2. The DBS receiver front end ofclaim 1, wherein the tuner chip further comprises a gain controlamplifier coupled to the lowpass filter to receive the baseband signal,wherein the gain control amplifier is configured to provide aconstant-maximum baseband signal in differential form, and wherein thedemodulator/decoder chip is coupled to the tuner chip to receive theconstant-maximum baseband signal.
 3. The DBS receiver front end of claim2, wherein the downconverter comprises:a phase-shift network whichconverts the tuning frequency signal into a zero-phase signal and a90-degree-phase signal; a first mixer coupled to combine the zero-phasesignal with the receive signal to provide an in-phase signal; and asecond mixer coupled to combine the 90-degree-phase signal with thereceive signal to provide a quadrature-phase signal, wherein the productsignal comprises the in-phase signal and the quadrature-phase signal. 4.The DBS receiver front end of claim 3, wherein the tuner chip furthercomprises:a prescaler coupled to receive the tuning frequency, whereinthe prescaler is configured to responsively produce a reduced frequencysignal to a programmable counter, wherein the programmable counter isconfigured to responsively provide a frequency-divided signal; a phasedetector coupled to combine the frequency-divided signal with areference frequency signal, and wherein the phase detector is configuredto provide a phase-difference signal to the charge pump.
 5. The DBSreceiver front end of claim 4, wherein the tuner chip furthercomprises:a crystal oscillator coupled to oscillate at a crystalresonance frequency; and a reference divider coupled to the crystaloscillator and configured to provide the reference frequency signal. 6.A tuner chip for a DBS receiver system, wherein the tuner chipcomprises:a tuning oscillator coupled to a tank circuit having anadjustable resonance frequency; a charge pump coupled to control theresonance frequency of the tank circuit; an on-chip voltage regulatoroperable to provide a stable power supply to the tuning oscillator andthe charge pump; a downconverter coupled to receive a tuning frequencysignal from the tuning oscillator, wherein the downconverter isconfigured to receive a receive signal and to combine the receive signalwith the tuning frequency signal to produce a product signal; and alowpass filter coupled to convert the product signal into a basebandsignal.
 7. The tuner chip of claim 6, further comprising a gain controlamplifier coupled to the lowpass filter to receive the baseband signal,wherein the gain control amplifier is configured to provide aconstant-maximum baseband signal in differential form, and wherein ademodulator/decoder chip is coupled to the tuner chip to receive theconstant-maximum baseband signal.
 8. The tuner chip of claim 7, whereinthe downconverter comprises:a phase-shift network which converts thetuning frequency signal into a zero-phase signal and a 90-degree-phasesignal; a first mixer coupled to combine the zero-phase signal with thereceive signal to provide an in-phase signal; and a second mixer coupledto combine the 90-degree-phase signal with the receive signal to providea quadrature-phase signal, wherein the product signal comprises thein-phase signal and the quadrature-phase signal.
 9. The tuner chip ofclaim 8, further comprising:a prescaler coupled to receive the tuningfrequency, wherein the prescaler is configured to responsively produce areduced frequency signal to a programmable counter, wherein theprogrammable counter is configured to responsively provide afrequency-divided signal; a phase detector coupled to combine thefrequency-divided signal with a reference frequency signal, and whereinthe phase detector is configured to provide a phase-difference signal tothe charge pump.
 10. The tuner chip of claim 9, wherein the tuner chipfurther comprises:a crystal oscillator coupled to oscillate at a crystalresonance frequency; and a reference divider coupled to the crystaloscillator and configured to provide the reference frequency signal.